Local residents
in the city proper, as well as in the surrounding areas, have traditionally
spoken the Jinan dialect of Mandarin that is not readily understood even by
native speakers of standard Mandarin. The younger people of Jinan are more
likely to speak standard Mandarin, whereas many older residents retain strong
local dialect elements in their speech. Nevertheless, even the younger
residents of Jinan tend to retain a strong local accent and mix local
vocabulary into the standardized Mandarin vocabulary. Due to the influx of
migrant workers during the past decade of China's economic boom, many of the
current population that are of working age are not natives of Jinan but have
learned to understand the Jinan dialect

Cuisine

Jinan has its
own cuisine, the Jinan style of the Lu cuisine, one of the Eight Culinary
Traditions of China. One of its features is the use of soup in its dishes.
Modern cuisines in northern China-Beijing, Tianjin and the northeastern regions
including Heilongjiang, Jilin and Liaonin- are all branches of Shandong
cuisine.

Shopping Centers

Most shopping
malls in Jinan are in the downtown area centered around Spring City Square and
Spring City Road. Spring City Square was built by the municipal government
beside the city moat in the early 21st century; at the center is the statue
"Spring" which has become a symbol of Jinan. The square borders on
the ancient city moat. It has a music fountain, a 46,000 square meter
underground shopping center and a memorial hall with statues of famous people
from Shandong.

Spring City Road
was rebuilt at the same time that Spring City Square was created. The
government's intention was to create a modern business district and yet
preserve the traditional Chinese culture. Therefore, newly built shopping malls
with traditional Chinese architectural styles and modern western skyscrapers
can be found side-by-side along Spring City Road. Notable retail businesses are
Quancheng Bookstore - the largest bookstore of the city - and Walmart (near the
western end of Spring City Road). Major shopping malls along the road are the
Guihe Shopping Center, the Sofitel Silver Plaza, the Shimao international
shopping center, and the Wanda Shopping Mall. Parc 66 to the south of Spring
City Road (opposite of Water Lily Street), opened in August 2011, is Jinan's
largest shopping mall with seven levels of retail space and a total gross floor
area of 171,000 square meters.

Springs and Lakes

Jinan is
known as the "City of Springs" because of the large number of natural
artesian springs. The majority of the springs, many of which have been
historically listed under the "72 Famous Springs" are concentrated in
the downtown district and flow north to converge in Daming Lake. The Baotu
Spring Park is the most popular of the springs in the City of Jinan
proper. Besides the Baotu Spring, the park contains several other springs that
are listed among the "72 Famous Springs". Baotu means
"jumping and leaping" in Chinese. The water in the spring pool can be
seen foaming and gushing, looking like a pot of boiling water. The spring was
visited by the Qianlong Emperor (1711-1799) of the Qing dynasty who
declared it "the best spring under the heaven". A tablet with the
Emperor's handwriting "Baotu Spring" has since been erected beside
the spring pool.

Not far
away to the northeast of Baotu Spring Park is the Daming Lake, which,
together with Baotu Spring and the Thousand-Buddha Mountain is often
regarded as the "Three Greatest Attractions in Jinan". Other notable
parks in the city include the Five Dragon Pool near the Baotu Spring
Park, the Black Tiger Spring on the southern city moat, and the Baimai
Springs of Zhangqiu City to the east of Jinan.

Buddhist Sites

Historic
Buddhist sites are particularly common in Licheng County to the south-east of
the city center of Jinan. The Four Gates Pagoda, built in 661, is the
oldest existing one-story stone tower in China. The pagoda houses four Buddhist
statues dating from the 6th century, and the Cypress tree standing next to the
pagoda is more than 1000 years old. Below the hill on which pagoda stands lie
the remnants of the Shentong Temple, which was founded in the 4th century but
was destroyed in the wars of later dynasties. The funerary stelae of monks from
the temple which date from different historic periods display remarkable
artistic features. The statues in the nearby Thousand-Buddha Cliff form
one of the best collections of Tang dynasty Buddhist statues in the
region.

The Lingyan
Temple in the southern county of Changqing was one of the four most famous
temples of the Tang dynasty. The temple was founded during the Jin dynasty and
reached its heyday during the Tang and Song dynasties. During the Tang dynasty,
the famous monk Xuanzang stayed in the temple and translated Buddhist
manuscripts he had brought to China from India. Many emperors in Chinese
history visited the temple before they went to Mount Tai (one of
China's five sacred mountains, located south of Jinan) for ceremonies. The clay
sculptures of Buddhas made in the Song dynasty is considered as "The Best
of China" by scholar and journalist Liang Qichao. Buddhist
architectures within the temple such as pagodas and tomb stelae are among the
earliest and best protected in the region.

Museums and Libraries

The Shandong
Provincial Museum located at the foothill of Thousand-Buddha Mountain is
the largest museum in the province. It has a large collection of natural as
well as historical treasures from the whole province. The museum was
established in its present form in 1982 and currently has 8 exhibition halls:
"Treasures of Shandong Province"; "Stone Sculptures";
"Warship of the Ming dynasty"; "Ancient Coins";
"Art Treasures"; "Fossil Collections";
"Dinosaurs"; and "Specimens". The museum has more than
210,000 relics and specimens, making up ⅓ of the collections in museums of
whole province. The Shandong Provincial Museum has been ranked No. 7 in terms
of collection size among the museums of China.

The
Jinan Municipal Museum is located at the south-western foot of the
Thousand-Buddha Mountain, in the north of the city center. Although much
smaller than the provincial museum, the municipal museum still houses a
collection of more than 20,000 items, most of which were recovered in the city
area.

The
Shandong Provincial Library] in the eastern High-tech Park (address: 2912
Second Ring East Road) is the principal library of the province and is ranked
among the Top 10 Chinese libraries. As of 2004, the library had more than 5.18
million documents, many of which date back many centuries and are important
sources for research on Chinese history. The library also has a large
collection of western journals/books. Originally, the library was built close
to Daming Lake in 1909 by the then governor of Shandong. In the late 1990s, a
project was undertaken to move the library to the eastern part of the city, and
it reopened in 2002 with 35 reading rooms and more than 2000 seats.